WOOD, Thomas (1708-99), of Littleton, Mdx.

In 1754 Wood was invited to stand with William Thornton for Westminster by a group of electors ‘desirous of having other Members there for their representatives than those already proposed’;Thornton to Bedford, 13 Apr. 1754, and Bedford’s reply, Bedford mss 30, f. 34. the invitation was declined when it became clear that they would be opposed by the Duke of Bedford. He is not known to have again considered standing for Parliament until 1779, when he owed his return for Middlesex to North’s refusal to grant the Chiltern Hundreds to George Byng, the candidate of the anti-ministerial party. Wood, the chairman of Byng’s election committee, was put up to hold the seat until the general election. ‘Mr. Wood is sent home,’ wrote Byng to Portland on 19 Oct. 1779 after the county meeting, ‘he is not to canvass, nor to do any one act at any period that can incur expense.’Portland mss. He was returned unopposed.

On 10 Dec. 1779 Wood presented a petition from the Middlesex freeholders complaining against North’s refusal to grant Byng the Chiltern Hundreds, and moved for leave to bring in a bill to allow Members to stand for another constituency. It was defeated on the motion to go into committee, 29 Feb. 1780. He does not appear to have spoken again.

He died 25 June 1799.